Kristen Gillibrand exits presidential race

U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand ended her presidential campaign Wednesday evening after failing to qualify for the upcoming televised Democratic debate.

Gillibrand’s campaign may have looked good on paper – a popular senator from a big state who had built a national reputation battling sexual assault in the military – but she struggled to gain support from the moment she launched her campaign in January, in a diner in Troy.

Gillibrand, an Albany native who served two years in the House before being appointed to fill Hillary Clinton’s Senate vacancy in 2009, broke the news with The New York Times. She also posted a video to her campaign Twitter account.

Today, I am ending my campaign for president.

I am so proud of this team and all we've accomplished. But I think it’s important to know how you can best serve.

To our supporters: Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. Now, let's go beat Donald Trump and win back the Senate. pic.twitter.com/xM5NGfgFGT

— Kirsten Gillibrand (@SenGillibrand) August 28, 2019

Gillibrand, 52, said she would endorse another candidate in the primary, but hasn’t picked one yet. She won reelection to the Senate in 2018, for a term running through the end of 2024. 

Gillibrand’s exit will likely ramp up pressure on New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio to also drop out of the presidential race. De Blasio has similarly lackluster poll numbers and has also failed to qualify for the upcoming debates.